Modern Era · North America · Politics
1959
Alaska joins the Union
January 3, 1959
Alaska became the forty-ninth state of the United States, a vast, largely empty, resource-rich territory that had been purchased from Russia in 1867 for seven million dollars. The US now extended into the Arctic. Hawaii would follow as the fiftieth state later that year. The shape of the nation was fixed.
In context
Also in 1959 (4 other events on record)
- Castro takes Havana · North America · Politics
- Dalai Lama flees Tibet · South Asia · Politics
- Alaska and then Hawaii join the Union · North America · Politics
- Buddy Holly dies in plane crash · North America · Culture
Before and after in North America
Before and after in Politics
Era
Modern Era (1901–2000), one of 590 events from that era on Saeculum.
Sources